Sunday, March 6, 2016

Scrappy Marathon

A couple of years ago I made a baby blanket using baby yarn and size 2 needles. And when I was done, I said, "Never again." I may need to say the same thing about size 3 needles. But I'm finally done.

The finished size is 37 inches square, and it represents an entire (small) bag of yarn- about 6-8 full skeins and another dozen or so partial skeins. (Picture me doing the happy dance of stash reduction.)

As I neared the end of the blanket, I started planning the next project- a baby sweater this time. I've been wanting to make an Elizabeth Zimmerman Tomten jacket, so I pulled out more lightweight yarn and started poking through it. My first thought was nice and bright:

Unfortunately, I had the yellow in only two weights- too light and too heavy (the red is the main color for the sweater because I have a lot of it, the other two are trim). So I switched it out for beige, which is more sedate, but also plays reasonably well with the red and dark brown.

Cookie didn't have an opinion.

Aside from adventures in yarn, life continues busy, principally employment related activity. We did get out to a nice concert of Irish music last week. And this weekend, I had a full day at home by myself. Not only a full day- but I woke up early (unusual for a Saturday) and full of energy (positively abnormal). There was a useful amount of cleaning that happened, and I made a good start on the baby sweater. The cats thought the cleaning was interesting- except for the vacuum, which they hate. It's because they're a part of nature, you know. And nature abhors a vacuum. When they weren't following me around getting underfoot, there was some communal snoozing.

Then today we went out for a delicious maple-drenched brunch in western MA, and went for a nice short hike on Mt. Warner. Most years it's too mucky and or snowy to hike much in March. But not this year. Beautiful sunshine, and see the snow?

Me neither. We had to look pretty hard even to spot ice. But when we found it, it was pretty cool. So to speak. I've never seen ice crystals that big outside. (They are about the size of my fingers.)

We finished by going to hear the Navy Band, who are on tour. They're really excellent. I actually like brass and wind instruments more than strings (I don't hate strings, but I play a wind instrument). They did some nice classical, some Rogers and Hammerstein, some patriotic numbers (of course) and naturally also some Sousa.

And then a quick dinner in Northampton (but no yarn, Webs is closed on Sundays), and home again. I got to knit on the drive, so the tomten is up to the armpits, the current sock is an inch or two short of the heel, and I expect further progress this week. Maybe even a photo!